“Norfolk Southern’s ex-Wabash Detroit Line” shows over twenty-four hours of action in September of 2012 on Norfolk Southern’s Detroit and Huntington Districts between Britton, Michigan, forty-seven miles southwest of Detroit and Blakeslee, Ohio, fifty-seven miles further west and eight miles west of the one-time division point at Montpelier. This line was once part of the Wabash Railroad Detroit to Kansas City main line and today is a key part of Norfolk Southern’s automotive artery from Detroit to St. Louis and Kansas City. In addition, Canadian Pacific has overhead rights for its trains between Detroit and Chicago on this line. After dropping during the great recession, the train count on this line has recovered to near record levels as the Michigan auto industry has come back and CP has begun running ethanol and crude oil trains on this line enroute to destinations in the Northeast and in eastern Canada. On some days this line sees more CP trains than NS trains. “Norfolk Southern’s ex-Wabash Detroit Line” is 63 minutes in length and has the option to be watched with or without narration. 

“UP Between Pratt and Hutchinson, KS” shows thirty hours of action on UP’s Golden State route between the outskirts of Pratt and Hutchinson in south-central Kansas in April of 2012. The former Rock Island and Southern Pacific, now Union Pacific Golden State Route between Kansas City and El Paso has seen its share of ups and downs in the past 35 years. In the late 1970’s this line was given up for dead and nearly abandoned as the track structure deteriorated and traffic dwindled to only one train in each direction as the bankrupt Rock Island prepared to exit the railroad business. Revived and rebuilt by the Southern Pacific beginning in 1980, the physical condition of this line deteriorated again prior to the Union Pacific takeover of the SP in 1996. The Golden State Route, in conjunction with the BNSF Transcon east of Kansas City, is UP’s preferred route between Chicago and Southern California. The rebuilding of the Golden State Route is nearly finished and traffic has been recovering from losses suffered in the great recession. “UP Between Pratt and Hutchinson, KS” is 59 minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration. 

Afton in northeast Oklahoma, 183 miles south of Kansas City and just across the border from Missouri, is where the BNSF line that heads south from Kansas City joins their Springfield, Missouri to Tulsa, Oklahoma main line. Both lines are former St. Louis-San Francisco or Frisco track. The junction at Afton was important in Frisco days and it remains important today, with in excess of two dozen trains through Afton on peak days of the week, more than ran through here during the last days of the Frisco. Intermodal trains from St. Louis, Birmingham, and Memphis for the West Coast run through Afton as do many manifest trains from Kansas City, St. Louis and Memphis that are headed to the busy, former Frisco hump classification yard in Tulsa. And the power is an amalgam of what is on the BNSF roster with a mix of newer and older AC and DC units. This program shows over twenty-four hours of action in and around Afton and nearby Vinita in April of 2012. “BNSF around Afton, Oklahoma” is 1 hour and 15 minutes in length and can be watched with or without narration. 

If you want to see the greatest show in freight railroading in this country, head to the BNSF main line between Chicago and Los Angeles known as the Transcon. In northeast Missouri around Ethyl, the former Santa Fe, Chicago to Kansas City portion of the Transcon, known in past years as the Airline and Speedway, encounters rough terrain that necessitated many cuts and fills. As trains surmount the hogbacks between the river valleys there, they encounter grades up to eight tenths of a percent and curvature that limits trains to between forty-five and fifty-five miles an hour for many miles and even slower speeds on the grades. Several wooden bridges giving overhead views of trains have brought railfans to this scenic part of northeast Missouri for decades. This program shows over twenty-four hours of awesome action on BNSF’s Marceline Subdivision, part of the BNSF Transcon, in northeast Missouri in April of 2012. And Union Pacific trains between Los Angeles and Chicago use this line also, a condition of the Burlington Northern – Santa Fe merger. “The Transcon in Northeast Missouri” is a two disk set and is 2 hours and 20 minutes in length.  This DVD has the option of being watched with or without narration.